At The Center Of It All, Your Eyes: The Meaning Of David Bowie’s Blindness In “Lazarus” Video
Those who have been surprised by the many weird aspects of David Bowie’s career may not be familiar with the even weirder features of his last two albums, even now, nearly four years after his death.
These albums contain mysteries and clues that have yet to be unraveled. When Bowie, without any prior notice, released “The Next Day” in 2013, after a 10 year absence from music, it was a surprise to fans, who welcomed the return of this gender bending rock and roll icon by purchasing millions of copies. Three years later, with the 2016 release of “Blackstar,” and its jazz experiments and bizarre videos, music lovers everywhere experienced his seemingly endless creativity in a new light, as he grappled with themes of aging and faced his mortality in ways exclusive to his unique vision.
Yet it wasn’t apparent right away how fragile Bowie’s mortality was. Just two days after the release of “Blackstar,” the news of Bowie’s death from cancer spread across media networks like wildfire. And countless speculation about the meanings hiding in his work became fodder for news and social media across the internet.
In the last two videos released before his death, “Blackstar” and “Lazarus,” Bowie presents a new character never before seen in his six decade career: a persona with bandages across his eyes, and black buttons where the eyes might have been. This seems striking at first glance, and it really never becomes easy for one to process.
Blindness as a metaphor for being in some kind of cognitive or spiritual darkness is older than the Old Testament. Bowie’s career was one of self-discovery, of a decades-long emerging out of darkness into self-awareness. It wasn’t until Bowie conquered his demons starting in the mid ’70s that he could emerge as a more positive person in the ‘80s and beyond, most notably with the album “Let’s Dance.” Yet there’s probably more to the significance of this blind caricature than a mere representation of spiritual darkness.
In the video “The Next Day,” the video for the single from the album of the same name, a female character enters a seedy nightclub, carrying a tray with two severed eyes on it. She herself has veiled eyes, as if blind, and is guided by a male figure, in a scene loaded with creepy religious imagery. The question is clear: are these the eyes (given a vivid closeup at the 37 second mark) the same eyes missing from Bowie’s blind character in his last two videos? More likely, as Bowie’s eyes were different colors and these are not, they are the eyes from the veiled woman who carries them.
Yet there’s more: in the song “Blackstar,” there’s a verse:
“On the day of execution, on the day of execution,
Only women kneeled and smile
At the center of it all
Your eyes, your eyes.”
Some have called this verse satanic, while others have made the same claim about Bowie’s career. Could all of this — the veiled woman, carrying eyes, the heretical religious imagery, the bandaged image of Bowie in his last two videos — imply a kind of shadowy cult that preys on others by removing their eyes, turning them into a commodity for some kind of religious ceremony?Could this be a metaphor for a secret organization behind the machinery of fame, one that Bowie would have known all too well?
And while there may be occult meaning in this song, perhaps the symbol of the eyes points to something more simple. These eyes may in fact point to Bowie’s artistic vision, which indeed was the center of his career, making it possible. And as Bowie’s career relied heavily on commodification of these talents, perhaps presenting the eyes, his vision, on a tray signifies them as the very commodity that made the career happen. As he approached the end of his life, it’s possible that Bowie paid a kind of tribute to that vision. Or perhaps he was making a comment about the darkness that would come, when one’s eyes are shut — or plucked out — for the very last time.
Diving into Bowie’s catalog can be rewarding work. For those starting out, whether you work backwards, from “Blackstar,” or start out with his mid ’60s arty pop, you’ll surely find enjoyment. One thing’s certain — at the center of it all, you’ll find the creative vision of perhaps the most original musical artist produced in our lifetimes.
